Kim Jong-un gives out copies of 'Mein Kampf' as birthday gift

North Korea’s enigmatic leader Kim Jong-un gave out copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf to North Korean leaders during his birthday celebrations last January, according to a report on Monday by New Focus International, a website that covers news from North Korea.

“Kim Jong-un gave a lecture to high-ranking officials, stressing that we must pursue the policy of Byungjin (Korean for ‘in tandem’) in terms of nuclear and economic development. Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in WWI, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it,” a source in North Korea told New Focus International.

Mein Kampf, which was published during the mid-1920s by future German leader Adolf Hitler, is an autobiography as well as a political manifesto that is deeply controversial for its racist content, and later for its historical consequences.

According to New Focus International, Kim Jong-un studied Hitler closely while at boarding school in Switzerland. During his birthday celebrations, Kim Jong-un reportedly highlighted sports as the secret behind Germany’s unity and praised Hitler’s policies that encouraged the German people to have more children.